Echocardiographic Assessment of Recovered Patients with Mild COVID-19 Infection: A Case-Control Study
Hedieh Alimi1, Leila Bigdelu1, Hoorak Poorzand1
1Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Insights
Mild COVID-19 can cause lasting heart changes, even in healthy individuals. Echocardiography helps assess cardiac function and monitor recovery after infection.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Infectious Diseases
- Public Health
Background:
- Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presents significant cardiac manifestations and a global health burden.
- Understanding the long-term cardiac impact of even mild COVID-19 is crucial for patient management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effects of mild COVID-19 infection on cardiac function.
- To assess cardiac changes in patients without pre-existing structural heart disease.
Main Methods:
- 100 outpatients with mild COVID-19 (3 weeks to 3 months post-recovery) were compared to 105 healthy controls.
- Comprehensive transthoracic echocardiography was performed on all participants.
Main Results:
- COVID-19 patients showed increased global longitudinal strain, pulmonary artery pressure, and right ventricular (RV) parameters (RV E', RV A').
- Reduced septal tissue velocities and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were observed in the COVID-19 group.
- Abnormal LVEF (<55%) and moderate/severe diastolic dysfunction were more prevalent in COVID-19 survivors.
Conclusions:
- Mild COVID-19 can induce cardiac functional and structural alterations.
- Echocardiography is valuable for assessing cardiac risk and follow-up in post-COVID-19 patients.
- These findings highlight the importance of cardiac monitoring after even mild SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Context:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been revealed as a severe illness with a wide-ranging cardiac manifestation and has a worldwide burden on the health-care system.
Aims:
Our aim in this study is to assess the impact of mild COVID-19 infection on cardiac function in patients without previous structural heart disease.
Settings And Design:
We evaluated 100 outpatients with a history of mild COVID-19 infection without needing hospitalization within 3 weeks to 3 months after recovery from the acute phase of the illness between August 2020 and July 2021.
Subjects And Methods:
The patients were compared with 105 healthy participants without a history of COVID-19 as the control group. All participants underwent comprehensive transthoracic echocardiography.
Statistical Analysis Used:
Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics 23. For all tests, P < 0.05 was defined as statistically significant.
Results:
COVID-19 patients had higher global longitudinal strain (P = 0.001), systolic pulmonary artery pressure (P = 0.008), RV E' (P = 0.049), and RV A' (P = 0.003), while had lower septal tissue velocities (P = 0.01) and left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) (LVEF) (P = 0.03). Abnormal EF (LVEF <55%) was noted in 19% of the COVID-19 patients and 8.6% of the control group (P = 0.03). Moderate or more diastolic dysfunction was noted in 10 COVID-19 patients but only in one participant in the control group (P = 0.005).
Conclusions:
Mild COVID-19 infection can result in cardiac functional and structural changes, even in patients without known previous structural heart disease. Echocardiography can be a useful modality for risk assessment and follow-up in patients with COVID-19.
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